Stuart Hall Sentence Goes To Court Of Appeal
The ex-presenter's sentence for a series of sex attacks will be reviewed after complaints about his 15-month jail term.
12:09pm UK, Thursday 11 July 2013
Source: SkyNews

The Attorney General has referred the sentence of disgraced BBC presenter Stuart Hall to the Court of Appeal for review after complaints it was too lenient.

The 83-year-old former It's A Knockout presenter was jailed for 15 months in June after admitting indecent assaults on 13 girls.

The attacks spanned three decades and involved children aged as young as nine.

More than 150 people came forward to demand that the Attorney General's Office consider Hall's sentence for referral.

An AGO spokeswoman said: "Having carefully reviewed this case, the Attorney General, Dominic Grieve QC MP, has decided to refer the sentence of Stuart Hall to the Court of Appeal for review.

"The case will in due course be heard by three Court of Appeal judges who will decide whether or not the sentence is unduly lenient and whether they should increase the sentence."

Harrowing details of the sex abuse suffered by his victims were described at Preston Crown Court.

The prosecution told how a 13-year-old victim was assaulted after they had played tennis, when he is said to have told her: "Sometimes thank you was not enough in words."

He told a 10-year-old girl to cuddle him "like she would one of her teddies" after he had given her steak and champagne, the court heard.

A 15-year-old girl was abused in Hall's dressing room at the BBC, prosecutors said.

A 13-year-old was assaulted while she was drunk and unwell at a family party and described the attack as a "frenzied maul".

He preyed on a nine-year-old girl while she was in bed.

Another victim, who was 17 at the time, was attacked while dressed as a cheerleader for the filming of It's A Knockout.

Hall was told by Judge Anthony Russell during sentencing that those who had admired him in his career now know there is a "darker side" to him.

He initially told police his victims were lying as part of a "vendetta" against people in the public eye.

When arrested last December over three claims of indecent assault, he described the allegations as "nonsense".

He told an officer one of the complainants was "a complete and utter liar".

Hall, of Wilmslow, Cheshire, went on to issue an impassioned on-camera denial of any wrongdoing, describing the allegations against him as "cruel".

But he later admitted 14 indecent assaults on 13 girls between 1967 and 1987.

Hall was a familiar face and voice in British broadcasting for half a century.

He was last year awarded an OBE in the New Year Honours for his services to television and charity.